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Our guest is Craig Defleming at Sassin Tech! For this episode, I invited Craig Defleming on the podcast who is an experienced builder of custom unmanned aircraft systems. He has helped our company by delivering some different custom built multirotor and fixed wing drones that we have been able to use on site for clients. While custom builds may not be a common choice ...

Our guest is Felix Weber at Ag Business and Crop! Felix joins us on the podcast with many years of experience as a farm consultant out in Palmerston, Ontario (Canada). He is very familiar with the introduction of new technologies into farming workflows and was a very early adopter of UAVs in this sector, also being the first distributor of Sensefly systems in Canada. ...

Our guest is Alyssa Ryan at MicaSense! MicaSense is a Seattle-based firm that has gained a lot of traction in the UAV sensor space, particularly with their work on a small 5-band multispectral camera called the RedEdge. Alyssa discusses a wide range of topics surrounding their UAV camera technology, including some really unique use cases for their product. I’ve ...

Our guest is Calvin Reich at Capri Insurance Services! Calvin has positioned himself (and Capri) as a leader in Canada when it comes to insurance surrounding unmanned aircraft. He is active in many UAV groups online, and is currently a member on the board of Unmanned Systems Canada, where he stays up to date with the latest policies and helps to shape them. Calvin has assisted me ...

When you first start to plan mapping missions with UAVs, you realize there are a lot of factors at play. How high should I fly? What speed should my UAV be flying? How much front overlap and sidelap do I need? What should my camera settings be? What camera lens is best? These are all questions that UAV pilots ponder when they first start mapping with drones. This is especially true if you have a custom built drone ...

Our guest is Andrew Chapman from Australian UAV! Andrew’s background includes experience as a commercial pilot and as a visual effects supervisor in the film industry, sets of skills that have transferred over well as he started to focus on drone work. He has operated UAV startups in both Canada and Australia, and is currently back in Sydney as the Director of Operations for Australian UAV in ...

Our guest is Paul Bennett from Aerobotika! Paul was elected to the board of Unmanned Systems Canada and is the founder of Aerobotika Aerial Intelligence (AAI) headquartered in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. I first met Paul when I took ground school training through AAI, which has developed a reputation as one of the top UAS educators across Canada. In addition AAI has manufactured their own custom UAVs and have also ...

When we take a step back and look at the current state of the commercial drone industry, one thing is clear: there are many ways to do business with drones. For drone startups or established companies that are introducing UAVs, one of the most critical decisions they make in the early stages is to establish what areas of business they will focus their attention on.

Laws and permits…Yes, please control your enthusiasm! It may not be the most exciting part of the process, but a necessary step to do business with drones is to abide by the rules and regulations set out in your country for commercial UAV work.

Before you read any further, this post focuses on Canadian laws and regulations for drones up to 25 kg. Continue Reading →